This digest draws on a set of linguistic autobiographies written by Asian-American college students in classes at the University of California at Berkeley over the last several years, and examines the pattern of language shift that takes place in the young first- and second-generation student and why this shift takes place. It also looks at the efforts families make to keep their heritage language strong (and why those efforts often do not work) and at those rare people who have succeeded in becoming bilingual, and what happened to make it possible. Specific sections discuss the following: learning English; first language attrition; factors relating to first language retention and attrition; efforts at language maintenance; the University of California, Berkeley environment; and thoughts for future generations. (VWL)